One of the main PR blogs in the UK is Spin Bunny. In one of its posts today, it highlighted the fact that both I and LEWIS CEO, Chris Lewis have links on our blogrolls to its site. Chris, rather flatteringly, describes Spin Bunny as – "irreverent, great quality journalism from the UK. As a former journalist this site says so many things that I can’t."

This seems to have rather irked the person behind this blog, who has interpreted our linking as an attempt to associate the LEWIS brand with Spin Bunny. For those who do not know, Spin Bunny is an anonymous blog which posts PR news, insight and general gossip about the industry in the UK. It mainly focuses on the tech PR industry and (I’m guessing here) seems to want to provide an alternative voice to PRWEEK (which is probably needed).

I don’t know who writes Spin Bunny. I quite enjoy reading it, but it could be written by a former employee of LEWIS, a competitor, a current employee or, who knows, perhaps even someone with no direct knowledge of the firm. Whatever, my firm has been in its sights in the past – here, here and here. That’s fine – if you are the largest in the sector, you’ll attract opinion.

By linking to the blog, Spin Bunny feels its anonymity is in danger. To distance itself from LEWIS, it is attempting to collect ‘dirt’ about the firm which it will publish, thereby proving its impartiality. The logic being that surely if LEWIS were behind the blog, it would not criticize itself (in case the prior mentions did not prove this point).

I think I’ve heard most of the gossip about my firm. There isn’t much – we’re a 150 person agency and frankly not that exciting compared to some. Personally, I’d prefer not to discuss rumors with an anonymous source in public. I prefer a more transparent approach since ascribing your name to an opinion gives it credibility, but nonetheless I’ve offered to refute or confirm any issues which crop up. That, I think, is the essence of open communication, even if it does give it unwarranted credibility.

But just for the record, in the hope that it might achieve Spin Bunny’s goal of confirming it’s not a LEWIS marketing vehicle, I can confirm that it isn’t. I should know since I’m part of the team which leads the agency’s marketing. And if it would help, I’m also happy to take off the link on my personal blog. Just ask – it’s really much simpler.

Then again perhaps it is…